Moving contact for electric railways



(No Model.)

A. W. ADAMS. MOVING CONTACT FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

Patented Dec. 2, 1890.

mm 3513 attoznm v In: Noam: PETkRS UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR WELLINGTON ADAMS, 'OF. KANSAS CITY, ASSIGNOR TO FRANCIS-E. NIPHER, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

or ONE-HALF MOVING CONTACT FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 442,002, dated December 2, 1890. Application filed December 23, 1889. Serial No. 334-621. No model.)

A .To (ZZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ARTHUR WELLINGTON ADAMS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented a new, improved, and useful Moving Contact forElectrio Railways, of which the following is a true and complete specification.

Heretofore in constructing and "operating electric railroads employing an overhead system of electric conductors it has been customary to resort to either a sliding contact or a revolving trolley-wheel moving along the under side of the electric conductor for carried upon the car.

the purpose of conveying the electricityfrom said conductor to the electric motor which is lVhile both these methods have been demonstrated to be capable of accomplishing the end in view, they are, nevertheless, both open to some serious objections. Forinstance, the sliding contact,while it offers less electrical resistance and affords greater surface contact and therefore requires its use is objectionable. On the otherhand the rolling or trolley wheel contact offers great electrical resistance, and owing to the fact of its making only a line of contact with the electric conductor it must be pressed very strongly against said c'onductor,which in turn induces a great and rapid wear of the conductor and the trolley-wheel journals; ,Indeed, in order to secure sullicient contact surface with this form of moving contact the roller or trolley-wheel must be pressed up against the wire conductor with sufficient pressure to in a measure cause thewire to partially bend around the said wheel, so as to thus increase the area of the surface-contact. Again',the wheel runs off of the electric conductor quite frequently, which induces sparking, and thus in turn roughens up the surface of the wheel and renders it inoperative. Another objection to'the roller or trolley-wheel contact arises from the fact thatthe pointof contact is never stationary for any appreciable length of time, but isconstantly changing every hundreth' part'of a second. To overcome these objections to both these present systems, and yet secure the combined advantages of both, is the object of the present invention, which consists in the provision of an endless belt orband mounted upbn suitable pulleys and traveling 5 5 upon the surface of the conductor, said endless belt or band being mounted as an idler and having no-positive driving mechanism for communicating motion to its supportingpulleys, but moving solely by reason of its '60 ary as between the moving contact and the conductor for the 'n mber' of inches of contact arranged for by the length of the belt, thus effecting the same result as in a sliding contact without the latters attendant wear upon the conductor. but slight pressure uponthe conductor is 'required, so that but little Wear of the journals of the pulleys over which the belt runs is in; duced. Such a contact will not run 0d of the electricconductor as readily as will a rolling contact, since there is no wheel to climb the electric conductor. The endless belt or band designed to be used as a contact may be made ''of copper or other conducting material arranged in the form of a flexible band or of links; or it may consist of two or more spiral springs made of springbrass or, hosphor-bronze wire. This mechanism is I ield in contact with the wire, rod, or I rail serving as the electric conductor bymeans 8 5 of a lever-arm and an arrangementofsprings similar in principle to those used in other similar devices, although the one here shown differs somewhat in'detail from'any of these.

The invention is fully and clearly illus- 9o trated in the accompanying drawings, in

which Figure 1 represents a side elevation of the complete apparatus with the -upper portion of its attached lever-arm. Fig. 2 represents,

on smaller scale, the lower portion of the lever-arm with its supports and suitable springconnections for maintaining contact with the electric conductor. In Fig. 1 part of one of the retaining sides is broken out to show too W'ith such a contact 70 the endless belt and one of its rollers or pulleys. -The universal ,joint is also shown in section. Fig. 3 represents several links of a suitable link-belt. Fig. 4 shows a moditication of the endless belt, in which a spiral spring is used instead of either a flexible band or a chain made up of links.

Similar letters of referenceind'icate corresponding parts throughout the figures.

A and A, Fig. 1, represent the rollers for carrying the endless belt or band. a and a represent their axes, and b one of the bearings for said axes.

13 represents the endless belt made up of links 0 C O.

D represents one ot the two removable side guards designed to support the journals and also to keep the d vice in place upon the-electric conductor.

E represents the electric conductor, against which the endless belt or band is designed to be pressed.

F represents a universal or ball-and-socket joint with spring attachment f (shown in section) and designedto maintain universal parallelism between the endless belt or band and the electric conductor.

G represents the conductors cord for manipulating the moving contact.

II H represent an angular lever-arm designed to support the contact device; I, Fig. 2, its fulcrunn'J, a suitable spring for holding said angular lever-arm ainst the electric conductor; and K, a s xiVol-pin, upon which said lever-arm is mounted.

L represents a segment of the top of the car, (shown in section M, a socket for the swivel pin, (also shown in section N, an arm projecting from the swivel-pin to serve as the fixed point of attachment for the spring J.

O O C, Fig. 2, represent three detached links of a suitable endless belt. These links may be *made of copper, brass, phosphor-bronze, carbomor any other suitable conducting material. I am disposed'to favor alayer of carbon for the contact-surface of the belt, and I believe the use of carbon in this connection to be new, and I shall therefore claim it broadly, whether it be used in connection with an endless-belt contact. a wheel-contact, or a' sliding contact.

B and 15 represent segments of two spiralspring belts-suitably arranged side by sideto serveas the endless belt in lieu of the linkbelt or simple flexible band should such a belt be found more desirable. E of the same figure represents a segment of the conductor resting in the sulcus formed between the two belts.

Having thus fully and clearlydescribed my invention, What I claim as new and useful, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. In an electric railway'operated by means of 9. current of electricity transmitted to an electrically-propelled car while the latter is in motion, the combination, with an electric conductor paralleling such road and designed to convey ,the propelling-current of electricity to the car, of an endless belt or flexible band of some suitable conducting material mounted upon the car as an idler, to move by frictional contact with said conductor, and held against the conductor with yielding pressure,

substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

2. In an electric railway operated by means of a current of electricity transmitted to an electrically-propelled car while the latter is in motion, the combination of an electric conductor paralleling such road and designed to convey the propelling-current of electricity to 'the cars upon said road, an endless belt or flexible band made of some suitableeom ducting material and properly mounted upon rollers or spindles and arranged to run parallel to and in contact with said conductor, with a suitable lever-arm and springs supported upon the'ear in such manner as to maintain contact between said endless belt and the said electric conductor, substantially as herein shown and set forth.

3. In an electric railway operated by means of a current of electricity transmitted to an electrically-propelled car while the latter is in motion, the combination of an electric conductor paralleling such road and designed to convey the propelling-current of electricity to the cars upon said road, an endless belt or flexible band made of some suitable conducting material properly mounted u-pon roll ers or spindles and arranged to run parallel to and in electrical contact with said conductor, a universal or ball-and-socket joint for maintaining universal parallelism between said endlcss belt and the electric conductor, with a suitable lever-arm-and springs supported upon the car in such manner as to maintain contact between said endless belt and the said electric conductor,substantially as herein shown and set forth.

4. The combination of a vehicle designed to be electrically propelled,-an electric motor carried upon said vehicle and designed to propel said vehicle, a stationary source of electrical supply, an electric conductor arranged to convey an electric currentfrom saidsource of supply to and along the route of said vehicle, a moving contact consisting of an end less belt or flexible band made of someeonducting material suitably mounted to run as an idler upon proper rollers or spindles and arranged to run parallel to and in contact with said electrical conductor, and suitable mechanical means connected with said vehicle for-holding said moving contact. "ainst the said electric conductor with yieldingpress are, with means for electrically connecting said moving contact with the saidpropellingmotor, substantially as herein shown'and set forth.

5. The combination of a vehicle designed trical conductor,

to be electrically propelled, an electric motor carried upon said vehicle and designed to propel said vehicle, a stationary source of electrical supply, an electric conductor arranged to carry an electric current from said source of supply to and along the route of said vehicle, a moving contact consistingof an endless link belt made of some conducting material suitably mounted to run as an idler upon proper rollers or spindles and arranged to run parallel to and in contact with said elecmeans for holding said moving contact against the said electric conductor with yieldingpressu-re, and means for electrically connect-ing said moving contact with the said propelling-motor, substantially as herein shown and set forth.

6. The combination of the endless belt or flexible band B with its supports, the electric conductor E, the universal joint F, the angu- 2o lar lever-arm H H, the swivel-pin K, with its projecting arm N, andthe socket M for the reception of the swivel-pin, with the spring J for holding the contact against the conductor, substantially as herein shown and set -25 

